Azure Weekly Issue 435: 10th September 2023

To start off, two conference reminders; Microsoft Ignite is on from the 14th - 17th November in Seattle and Online, and Microsoft Data & AI Conference in Las Vegas 10-15th December. Sticking with Data & AI, if you keep hearing about embeddings and vectors but don't know what they are, Episode 472 of the Azure Podcast covers Azure Vector Search Unveiled, and there's also a Step-by-Step Guide for Bringing your own Data to Azure OpenAI.

Two AKS posts of interest: AKS: Login with Azure CLI and Workload Identity, and How to install an AKS cluster with Azure Managed Prometheus and Azure Managed Grafana via Bicep.

Three other articles of interest Intrusion Detection and Prevention System IDPS Based on Signatures, a very useful tool: AzSaveMoney - Clean-up unused resources and save money and energy in your Azure environment. and a dive into Upgrading to container app environment workload profiles - or not?

Finally, a few weeks ago I mentioned The Green Software Foundation and that code = energy (= carbon) = cost. The more efficient the code, the less energy it uses, the less carbon it emits, and the less it costs to run. Jon George has written a series of blog post looking at Optimising .NET code (using an Advent of Code challenge as an example): Introduction, Hunting for allocations, Let's blame LINQ, and Avoiding allocations using Span<T>.

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Anomaly detector, Azure Bot Service, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Open Datasets, Bing APIs, Cognitive Services, Computer Vision, Content moderator, Custom vision, Data Science Virtual Machines, Face, Form Recogniser, Immersive Reader, Ink Recogniser, Language Understanding (LUIS), Machine Learning Studio, Microsoft Genomics, ML.NET, Personaliser, Project Cortex, QnA Maker, Speaker Recognition, Speech-to-Text, Speech translation, Text Analytics, Text to Speech , Translator Speech, Translator Text

• Radu Kopetz announces AutoML Images & NLP gets new brains and becomes more open
• On episode 472 of the Azure Podcast, the podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Farzad Sunavala to discuss Azure Vector Search Unveiled
• Aaron Powell (@slace) delves into Generative AI and .NET - Part 2 SDK
• Ben Roberts blogs about Azure MLOps Challenge Blog: Part 5
• John Aziz (@john00isaac) explains how to Bring your own Data to Azure OpenAI: Step-by-Step Guide

Analytics

Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Catalog, Data Factory, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, HDInsight, .NET for Apache Spark, R Server for HDInsight, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric

• On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Ryan Majidimehr (@rmajidimehr) highlights the Microsoft Fabric August 2023 update and Abhishek Narain highlights the Microsoft Fabric Data Factory Webinar Series – September 2023
• Samantha Brown talks about Azure Health Data and AI Templates Live in Azure Data Factory: Convert and More
• Anshul Sharma walks through Introducing the New Data Explorer Get Data Experience: Streamlining Your Data Ingestion Journey
• Temidayo Omoniyi describes how to Import JSON Files into Databricks Spark and import Excel files into Databricks
• Temidayo Omoniyi describes how to Import JSON Files into Databricks Spark and import Excel files into Databricks
• Harun Legoz (@hylegoz) writes Fabric Dataflows Now Support Service Principal Authentication
• Oluwaseun Oyero talks about OneLake for all your data in Microsoft Fabric, let's create one

Compute

Covering: Azure CycleCloud, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure Functions, Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple, Batch, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances, Service Fabric, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets

• Hari Pulapaka talks about Azure Host OS Update with Hypervisor Hot Restart
• Vinil Vadakkepurakkal describes How to unmount Azure Managed Lustre filesystem using Azure Scheduled Events

Containers

Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers

• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview: Azure Container Storage Updates: Expanded regions and performance options
• Benedikt Häuser explores Upgrading to container app environment workload profiles - or not?
• Marina Liu writes about Best practise for Private Endpoint Enabled Docker container App Service
• Feynman Zhou announces Notation Azure Key Vault plugin v1.0 for signing container images
• Paolo Salvatori describes How to install an AKS cluster with Azure Managed Prometheus and Azure Managed Grafana via Bicep

Databases

Covering: Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database Edge, Azure Cache for Redis, SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server on virtual machines, SQL Server Stretch Database, Table storage

• Aditi Gupta discusses Azure MySQL Import Smart Defaults for Azure DB for MySQL Single Server to Flexible Server migration
• David Engel blogs about Hotfix: JDBC Driver 12.4.1 for SQL Server Released
• Varun Dhawan describes August 2023 Recap: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server
• Shreya R. Aithal blogs about MySQL extension for Azure Data Studio - General Availability
• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) writes about lessons learned: 419: System.Net.Sockets.SocketException 00000005, 0xFFFDFFFF in Azure Data Studio, 420: Monitoring Azure SQL Transaction Log Usage with PowerShell, 421:Understanding and Troubleshooting Transaction Log Truncation in Azure SQL DB and 422: Retrieving Database Connection Strings with Azure Key Vault
• Zoran Rilak describes Non-scenarios with private endpoints to Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Jim Evans compares SQL Server Offerings by Top Cloud Providers - Azure, AWS and Google Cloud
• Erik Ejlskov Jensen describes how to Use DateOnly and TimeOnly with EF Core 6, 7 &ampamp 8 and Azure SQL / SQL Server

Developer Tools

Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online

• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public preview: Azure Modeling and Simulation Workbench, and that Azure Load Testing now supports uploading large files as ZIP and Move Azure Load Testing resources across resource groups and subscriptions
• Carlos Mendible (@cmendibl3) covers AKS: Login with Azure CLI and Workload Identity
• On the Visual Studio blog, Harshada Hole writes about Elevating Debugging with Auto-decompilation and External Sources
• Leah Tran explains how to Keep your casing with Case-preserving Find and Replace
• Julian Ostrowe explains Downloading Your Data From Bonsai
• Shadrack Kiprotich discusses Embracing the Power of Visual Design: A Deep Dive into Microsoft Power Apps' Express Design

DevOps

Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations

• Leo Visser (@autosysops) writes about Multiple ways to automate code testing
• Werner Rall talks about Automating Azure VM Deployment: The Power of PowerApps, SharePoint, Flow and Azure DevOps Pipe

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Werner Rall talks about Automating Azure VM Deployment: The Power of PowerApps, SharePoint, Flow and Azure DevOps Pipe
• Strahinja Rodic explains How to restore backups from Amazon S3 to Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Strahinja Rodic explains How to restore backups from Amazon S3 to Azure SQL Managed Instance

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services

• Nitika Gupta (@_nitika_gupta) writes about Conditional Access Overview and Templates are now Generally Available

Integration

Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus

• Alex Zúñiga covers Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - September 2023
• Linishya Vaz writes about Incremental Mode Import in Azure Health Data Services
• Bhalchandra Atre talks about Outlook REST API v2.0 and beta endpoints decommissioning update
• Harold Campos discusses Patterns for a Gradual Modernization of IBM Mainframes and Midranges using Azure Logic Apps
• Luis Rigueira talks about  Error Handling inside Azure Logic Apps video and explains how to Send Log Analytics error reports by filtering Data from an entire Resource Group video

Internet of Things

Covering: Azure Digital Twins, Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Edge, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT solution accelerators, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere, Azure Time Series Insights, IoT DevKit, WildernessLabs, Windows 10 IoT Core Services

Learning

Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information

• On Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben & Scott blogs about Episode 350 – Take a look, its in a book, or in a Microsoft Learn exam
• Amy Boyd (@AmyKateNicho) writes Learn Live: Get started with Microsoft Fabric
• On episode 261 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) and Jeremy Miller (@jeremydmiller) talk about Parallelism in Software

Management and Governance

Covering: Automation, Azure Advisor, Azure Backup, Azure Blueprints, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Managed Applications, Azure mobile app, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Service Health, Azure Site Recovery, Cloud Shell, Cost Management, Microsoft Azure portal, Scheduler, Azure Purview

• Thomas Gossler (@thgossler) shares AzSaveMoney - Clean-up unused resources and save money and energy in your Azure environment.
• Oren Salzberg covers Query data in Azure Data Explorer and Azure Resource Graph from Azure Monitor, covers Azure Monitor cost optimization using Azure Advisor, covers Azure Monitor cost optimization using Azure Advisor and discusses Query Azure Resource Graph from Azure Monitor
• Tomee Abiodun covers Microsoft Purview Data Map Audit History Private Preview and discusses GA announcement— Microsoft Purview Canada East
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Tony Themelis talks about AI-powered Data Classification Microsoft Purview
• Episode 202 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast with Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure): Let's talk about uncommon services in Azure
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) talks about Azure Landing Zone Review Assessment

Media

Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer

Migration

Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box

• Neha Tiwari explains how to Detailed CSP to EA Migration Guidance and Crucial consideration

Mobile

Covering: App Service (Mobile), Mobile apps, Notification Hubs, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin

• Vladislav Antonyuk blogs about Adding Application Insights to .NET MAUI Application

Networking

Covering: Application Gateway, Azure Bastion, Azure DNS, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Azure Firewall Manager, Azure Front Door, Azure Internet Analyzer, Azure Private Link, Content Delivery Network, Load Balancer, Network Watcher, Traffic Manager, Virtual Network, Virtual WAN, VPN Gateway, Web Application Firewall

• Prachi Trivedi writes about Traffic Manager Integration with Azure API Management - 404 resource not found error
• Leo Visser (@autosysops) blogs about Using DNS in Azure IaaS
• Joe Carlyle (@wedoAzure) covers Azure Networking BCDR – Azure Back to School 2023

Security

Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center

• Stanislav Belov writes about Defender Monthly news - September 2023
• Lili Davoudian blogs about Accelerating Zero Trust Alignment with Microsoft Sentinel
• Cameron Gardiner writes about Microsoft Defender Endpoint MDE for SAP Applications on Windows Server
• Gustavo Modena delves into Intrusion Detection and Prevention System IDPS Based on Signatures
• Vivek Kumar explains how to Get incident updates from Defender Experts for XDR in the SOC tools you use

Storage

Covering: Archive Storage, Avere vFXT for Azure, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure FXT Edge Filer, Azure HPC Cache, Azure NetApp Files, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, Storage Accounts, Storage Explorer, StorSimple

• The Azure Updates Team announces General Availability of Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage is now available in more regions
• Haitham Qaffesha discusses Azure Storage Lifecycle Management LCM PrefixMatch Issues
• Rui Neiva explains How to aggregate the Azure Storage Blob Logs with Python
• Ralf Klahr walks through SAP Netweaver 7.5 with MaxDB 7.9 on Azure using Azure NetApp Files ANF
• Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) blogs about SFTP on Blob – Connecting from an Azure VM
• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) discusses Backing up Unraid to Azure Storage with Rclone

Web

Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps

• The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Test Single GraphQL Resolver in Azure API Management Portal
• Abhishek Reddy announces Public Preview of Free Hosting Plan for WordPress on App Service
• Xiaoyun Ding provides a Troubleshooting guide for Application Configuration Service on Azure Spring Apps

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop